One site for two distinct hemp product portfolios
Previously Manitoba Harvest’s hemp CBD and food products had their own sites and the biggest challenge was consolidating them into one site. Consumers for hemp food and CBD have unique needs, drivers, questions and misconceptions.
Not to mention the technical and operational constraints given the legal uncertainties around CBD. We had to navigate these in the UX & UI design and develop a single cohesive ecommerce website. While the site was focussed on the US, we had to consider how the site (or parts of it) would leverage Shopify Plus expansion stores for future countries.
UX that enables learning and shopping for Food or CBD
To combine Hemp Food and CBD into a single site and to ensure the two product catalogues were featured alongside each other as distinct categories, we brought in a comprehensive mega-navigation. This allowed users to explore the entire product range in a single place. From here, users can jump straight into a product collection, continue to learn more about Hemp Foods or CBD, or view all products.
To expedite the shopping experience, we customized a quick add to cart function that allows users to add products (inclusive of variants) to their cart directly from the product card. Helping browsers convert to buyers.
The key to growing hemp - education.
Hemp (food and CBD) has a low household penetration as it is victim to many misunderstandings. Education is critical to growing category sales as consumers considering hemp have concerns around taste, safety and how to eat (food) or take (CBD). A main focus of the site was to debunk hemp misconceptions, hit on the benefits, and educate on the ways hemp can be safely used and added to various meals and snacks.
A robust educational section with many jumping in points throughout the site gives consumers confidence and nudges them forward to try and buy hemp.
Double migration and a fresh app stack
Migrating content from two sites on separate platforms onto the new site, we used Excelify to migrate the significant blog & recipe content from WordPress and to migrate customer data, order history and discount codes from the previous CBD Shopify Plus site.
The new site allowed us to re-evaluate the app stack and consider any constraints. We launched with: ReCharge, Klaviyo, Avalara, PriceSpider where to buy functionality, and BazaarVoice Reviews and Curations. We also partnered with eBridge to integrate Sage 300 to Shopify Plus.